04/21/2003  APRIL 21--TOKYO, Japan--Fujitsu Limited and Fujitsu VLSI Limited have developed a spread-spectrum clock generator (SSCG) system chip that achieves the world's lowest power requirement and electromagnetic interference (EMI) levels.

04/14/2003  April 14, 2003 - Santa Cruz, CA - New data from the latest World Fab Watch, by Strategic Marketing Associates (SMA), indicates that competition is heating up to provide sub-180nm foundry services among a variety of players. The result is a threat of overcapacity by 2005.

04/01/2003  April 1, 2003 - Tokyo, Japan, and Sunnyvale, CA - Fujitsu Ltd. is set to merge its flash memory operations with those of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) through a joint venture, reported the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

04/01/2003  Motorola Inc. has demonstrated what it calls the first memory chip based on silicon nanocrystals, according to a news release.

03/28/2003  There are very few companies that possess the money and technical talent it takes to seriously pursue molecular electronics. That's where Hewlett-Packard Co. comes in. HP’s nanocomputing efforts will have major effects on smaller startups that are working on their own molecular electronics applications.

03/10/2003  A small Minnesota company hopes to make conventional electronic memory, well, a thing of the past. NVE Corp. is designing devices that use spintronics to store information. The technique promises to shrink products to a new scale while creating always-on electronic components for military, biomedical, environmental and consumer devices.

03/03/2003  Fired Bell Laboratories researcher Jan Hendrik Schon’s fall from grace continues months after investigators concluded his molecular electronics studies contained fabricated data. Two independent efforts to replicate Schon’s self-assembled monolayer field effect transistors failed to produce working devices, the journal Nano Letters reported, suggesting there is little to salvage from what was considered hallmark findings in 2001.

02/27/2003  Feb. 27, 2003 - Crolles, France - Jacques Chirac, president of the French Republic, inaugurated the Crolles2 Alliance facility in Crolles near Grenoble, France. The R&D center, owned by STMicroelectronics (ST), Motorola, and Philips, will pioneer CMOS technology from 90nm processes to 32nm over the next five years and also includes a 300mm wafer semiconductor manufacturing pilot line, which is now beginning operation.

02/27/2003  Feb. 27, 2003 - Seoul, Korea - Samsung Electronics Co. will invest 305 billion won (US$295.54 million) in memory-chip producing facilities during the first half of this year to meet increasing demand, the company said.

02/07/2003  Is the Bay Area’s status as a nanotech stronghold in trouble? Speakers at a San Francisco nanotech event recently would have you thinking yes. They painted a bleak picture of nanotech’s future, warning that the Valley was in danger of ceding its preeminence to other places. “The Valley is living off its past glories, assuming that this will extend to nanotechnology,” said one VC.

Parametric test hardware for ultralow-current measurements

01/22/2003  By: David Rose, Qi Wang, Keithley Instruments Inc., Cleveland, Ohio

Increasingly, parametric testing of MOSFETs in CMOS ICs requires very accurate measurement of various source, drain, and gate currents, and characterization of low current phenomena. The tester, cabling, and chucks used must be properly integrated... MORE

01/22/2003  Akustica Inc., a Pittsburgh developer of MEMS-based acoustic chips, extended its first round of financing to $4.5 million, according to a company news release. Akustica previously closed the round in October at $2.25 million.

01/09/2003  Jan. 9, 2003 - Auburn, CA - A team of engineers formerly with IBM Microelectronics' wireless division have formed a new radio and analog IC design company, Tahoe RF Semiconductor Inc.

01/08/2003  Jan. 8, 2003 - Sunnyvale, CA, and East Fishkill, NY - AMD and IBM have entered into an agreement to jointly develop chipmaking technologies for use in future high-performance products.

01/06/2003  Jan. 6, 2003 - Tokyo, Japan - NEC Corp. and Hitachi Ltd. have started negotiations with Intel Corp., requesting that Intel take a stake in their joint venture.

01/06/2003  Jan 6., 2003 - Shanghai, China - Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) and Elpida Memory Inc. have signed a five-year arrangement.

01/01/2003  Continuing functional enhancement of portable consumer and computing products challenges electronics industry OEMs to provide these products in smaller and lighter form factors.

12/20/2002  Dec. 20, 2002 - Sunnyvale, CA - Sandisk and Toshiba are planning a substantial increase in memory production at their Flashvision joint venture from 2003. They are also considering the construction of a new fabrication plant to handle an anticipated increase in demand in the second half of this decade, the companies have announced.

12/18/2002  Dec. 18, 2002 - Boise, ID - Micron Technology Inc. reported a wider fiscal first quarter net loss on Tuesday, saying the average selling prices for its products dropped about 12% from the prior quarter, according to Reuters.

12/16/2002  Dec. 16, 2002 - Sunnyvale, CA - Advanced Micro Devices has reorganized its flash memory chip operations as it attempts to take better advantage of increased memory needs in advanced electronics products, reports CBS MarketWatch.